Lindsey Graham: Elect Kevin McCarthy As Speaker Or Hakeem Jeffries Will Turn US Into Socialist Wakanda!

Yeah, this creep again.

Remember when Sen. Lindsey Graham was stumping for actual Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker? He seemed especially eager for Walker to win because it would somehow prove conclusively that Republicans weren't racist! Walker lost (thank God!) so Graham has no convenient human shield against accusations of racism, except for Tim Scott, the only Black Republican who is also the junior senator from Graham's home state. Maybe you need two Black senators for this spell to work and basic literacy is only required from one of them.

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 Here's Lindsey Graham Pointing At Herschel Walker Because He's So Excited Walker Is Black 

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Graham isn't too worried about people thinking he's racist because he tweeted some racist garbage yesterday while rallying Republicans behind Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker. (Graham has zero influence over the people blocking McCarthy's speakership bid, but I guess it's dull over in the Senate minority.)

 He tweeted, "How does this end? When Kevin McCarthy secures 213 votes — one more than Hakeem Jeffries. To those Republicans who suggest it is better to have Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker you must understand that means backing policies like: DC statehood, Puerto Rican statehood."

Twitter 

Oh no, Black and brown people might have full representation in Congress! That's the worst thing that could ever happen in America ... if you're racist. You might recall that Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress for the past two years and failed to make DC and Puerto Rico states with four new senators Republicans insist would be Democrats (wonder why?). The Democratic-controlled House passed a DC statehood bill in April 2021 despite opposition from Republicans who whined that DC didn't have car dealerships (wrong), an airport (seriously?), or even a landfill to call its own. However, that bill died in the Senate because of the Democrat Face Puncher 9000 aka the filibuster.

In his followup tweet, Graham warns, "Trust me when I say the legislative filibuster in the Senate is hanging by a thread." No, it isn't, you lying bowl of cold grits with sugar. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are still hopelessly devoted to the filibuster. And even if we could nuke the filibuster, House Democrats lack the votes to, as Graham suggests, abolish the Electoral College and expand the Supreme Court.

"The last thing we need is Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker," Graham declares, officially kicking off the collective rightwing fearmongering over the new House Democratic leader, a man so even-keeled you could cast him as the Black president in a 1990s movie.

Republicans have implied that the only choice is McCarthy or Jeffries, but that's obviously not true. Jeffries would need either five Republican defections or enough Republicans voting "present" (or not showing up) to give him a majority. The "Never Kevin" crew nominated Jim Jordan, who's godawful but not in any way that Graham finds objectionable.

What's damning for McCarthy is that his backers can't seem to make an affirmative case for him. Unlike former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy isn't an inspiring leader or even a competent legislator. So, Republicans are left railing against the Democrats in general and Lean on Me remake star Jeffries specifically. It's absurd.

If Republicans are so afraid of Democrats, they should elevate someone who can actually stand in the ring with Jeffries. That's not Kevin McCarthy, who's getting outboxed by Matt Gaetz . Graham can take his scary prognostications and go slither back under a rock.

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